peshmerga

Historians battle to save the remnants of Kurdish culture BY Tanya Goudsouzian and Lara Fatah When Mazhar Khaleghi was arrested by Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in 1980, he says his only crime was being himself. A sitar player and singer of Kurdish folk songs, Khaleghi was something of a pop star among Kurds. He was

Kurdish Intel chief: Without post-Daesh plan, history will repeat itself in Iraq and Syria By Tanya Goudsouzian Lahur Talabani’s journey to the forefront of the global war on terror began in the spring of 2002. It was a year after the 9/11 attacks had Americans questioning their intelligence failures in Afghanistan and the greater Middle East

Mosul residents fleeing Daesh’s hell to cold Kurdish-controlled camps By Cathy Otten During the battle to retake Mosul from Daesh, Nujud Ali, 45, lay on the ground, wounded by a bullet that had just shot straight through her right shoulder and out of her back, knocking her over. The hail of bullets greeted her when she

By Jonathan Landay and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON, Nov 7 – A U.S.-backed assault on Raqqa, Daesh’s de facto capital in Syria, is unlikely to pierce the city itself before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, denying him the chance to claim the end of the group’s “caliphate” as part of his legacy. Although a

By Babak Dehghanpisheh and Michael Georgy SAMAQA, Iraq, Nov 4- When Daesh insurgents fired mortar bombs at Iranian Kurdish women fighters holding a desert position in northern Iraq, the women first hit back by singing through loudspeakers. Then the women opened fire with machineguns. “We wanted to make them angry. To tell Daesh that we are

By Suadad Al Salhy Shieriesh Ebrahim, a 60-year-old Iraqi Yazidi woman has been spending most of her time over the past 27 months sitting in front of her small tent in Khanka Camp, 15 km west of the Iraqi border town of Duhok, praying to hear any news of her husband and her six sons who

Daesh’s leadership flees as the Iraqi army pushes to regain the city By Suadad Al Salhy The policy to fight militant group Daesh in Iraq and Syria was a key part of the third and last U.S. presidential debate, held in Las Vegas on October 19. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made fun of the ample public warning

By Babak Dehghanpisheh DAQUQ, Oct 17 – Shi’ite irregulars will help storm a smaller city in northern Iraq while government troops launch their upcoming offensive against Daesh’s biggest stronghold Mosul, raising fears among Iraqi officials and aid workers of sectarian retribution. The decision to steer the Popular Mobilisation Forces away from Mosul to Hawija 100

BAGHDAD/PARIS, Oct 12 – A booby-trapped drone launched by Daesh militants killed two Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and wounded two French soldiers earlier this month north of the Daesh-controlled city of Mosul, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday. The drone blew up when Peshmerga fighters tried to lift it after it crashed to the ground, Jabbar al-Yawar, secretary general

By Saif Hameed and Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD, May 30 – The Iraqi army stormed to the southern edge of Falluja under U.S. air support on Monday, launching a direct assault to retake the city from Daesh militants and help protect the nearby capital Baghdad from suicide bombings. As government forces pressed their onslaught, a car bomb